Tuesday, 10 October 2017

Displaying 'Portion control'

When working with text, one of the challenges is deciding how to display it. There are many things to consider. For example, is it meant to be read aloud and listened to, is it to be performed, is it to be read individually by the audience members, and if so, how will they interact with the text? Is it on the wall so more than one person can read it at once, or in a publication that only one person can read at once. How is the text written? By hand or computer? Is it important to read the text as a whole, or does it consist of shorter individual parts to be read in any order? Are there images alongside the text? Is it part of an installation?

I am going to be exhibiting a text in the group exhibition, REALITY CHECK which opens on Friday. I know that the other artists in the group exhibition have a lot of wall based work, so I want to avoid adding to this. I personally find it quite difficult to read when I am in a gallery, so I want to give the audience the opportunity to take the text away so they can read it in their own time and situation of choice. I have therefore chosen to produce a small publication.

I want to ensure that the publications are not 'lost' amongst the rest of the work, and so I am making a table for the publications to be presented on, and some matching stools for people to sit on while they read the text. In keeping with the publication, Portion Control, I am painting the table to resemble a pie chart.

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Statement

Helen Shaddock (born United Kingdom, 1986) is an artist based in Newcastle whose practice incorporates video, sound, writing, installation, sculpture and performance. Shaddock uses her personal experience of mental illness to inform the work she makes. She seeks to situate the audience in multi-layered psychological and physical situations.

Shaddock’s most recent project ‘Voices: Within and Without’, was funded by Arts Council England Grants for the Arts, and involved working with other voice hearers, artists, researchers, academics and Mental Health organisations to investigate visual hallucinations and the experience of hearing voices. During the project Shaddock participated in a Spoken Word residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada. It culminated in ‘THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER’, an audio-visual installation at The Word, South Shields in April 2018. Other recent exhibitions include WHICH WAY NORTH, Great North Museum:Hancock, Newcastle, June – Sept 2018, Lyres of Lemniscate, Drone Ensemble, WORKPLACE FOUNDATION/TUSK Festival, Gateshead, Sept-Oct 2018, and Doing Fine, Marginendeavour, a collaborative exhibition with David Foggo, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle, Oct 2018.